Elk County and St. Marys residents have a new way to be alerted about emergencies faster.

The new service is called Swift911.

Jackie Herbstritt says she signed up for Swift911 as soon as she heard about it.

“Just to know what’s going on in the area and be able to, even for myself, to travel home,” Herbstritt said. “If I was needing to leave or school’s being let out early, or something like that. I think that’s a good feature.”

Swift911 is an service that sends emergency notifications to your phone or email.

It’s used for things like severe weather, flooding, road closures and missing person alerts.

All Elk County residents were automatically signed up if their number is listed in the phonebook.

City of St. Marys officials are encouraging residents of the city to go a step further and add their cell phone numbers and addresses to receive more specific alerts.

“Information is just important and I think the more residents know what’s going on, the better decisions they’ll make to help themselves, as well as the city,” city manager Tim Pearson said.

Once signed up, residents can add multiple addresses and phone numbers.

For more information, or to sign up, click here.